Balvenie 26 Year Old A Day of Dark Barley
Poisonous Green Grappa
2 385
Review by @markjedi1
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall85
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The third bottling in ‘The Balvenie Stories’ is a single cask of 26 years old. It will set you back some 1.000 EUR though. According to legend, one day in 1992 the distillery took delivery of some dark, roasted malt. With trepidation they went to work with it. When the first batch of whisky was released in 2006 as their 14 years old Roasted Malt, they knew they had something very good going. Some casks were kept behind to be bottled later. This is one of those, bottled under the banner A Day of Darker Barely.
Very light nose that for some reasons immediately puts the colour poisonous green in my mind’s eye. Reminds me somewhat of grappa, actually. Green grapes, coconut, brioche, wood shavings, papaya and unripe pineapple. Lime juice, chalk and hand soap.
The body is somewhat oily on lime, grapes, pebbles and lots of kiwi. For some reasons, I am reminded of Kilkerran. How weird is that?
The finish is surprisingly short on citrus, peel included, and a tad of white pepper.
What is the fuss all about? Sure, it’s good, but in all honesty nothing special and certainly not worth the hefty price tag. But then again, who I am to judge these things?
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It’s been some time since I’ve been able to afford any sort of up scale Balvenie. The last one was the 17 year old Doublewood. I don’t think they are anywhere near up to their price points, nor are they any great shakes on the bang for buck front. What’s the big deal with Balvenie? I’ve had equally good, or at least as good drams for half the price.